Thanks to the Great Recession, poverty in America has increased in recent years. So what are the best ways to avoid falling into poverty? The Brookings Institution has spent a great deal of effort studying this issue. Brookings whittled down a lot of analysis into three simple rules. You can avoid poverty by:

1. Graduating from high school.
2. Waiting to get married until after 21 and do not have children till after being married.
3. Having a full-time job.

If you do all those three things, your chance of falling into poverty is just 2 percent. Meanwhile, you’ll have a 74 percent chance of being in the middle class.

I think all of those are good points. I am especially pro-waiting to get married and have kids. It would be interesting what changes we would see if the entire country, or an entire state, decided to follow these 3 rules.

Having a full-time job can be out of your control at times though.

And from a functionalist point of view, we need "poor people".

Not sure how I feel about the middle class bit. I think a lot of people are disillusioned about what middle-class means. (RANT: Like on Pretty Little Liars, where the mom is afraid she's going to lose her (at least) 3 bedroom 2 bath house, where her daughter and she have nice, and new, things, so she steals money from a client at her bank to avoid foreclosure. Like, what? Foreclosure is incredibly scary, but lets not pretend like you will be homeless without this money. You have insurance through your job, you work full time, you could live fine in an apartment, you don't even have dogs to worry about rehoming!!!)

Willing to work , no matter what job , is the only key to staying out of poverty.

I know several highschool drop out whom are making plenty plenty of money . WHY you say , because they took the crappy job and worked there way up.

I know plenty of poor people whom have never been married or had kids.
and WHO says kids without the paper = poor? I do agree that having kids to young will cramp ya opportunities , but that come back to being willing to work , no matter how beneath you you feel the job may be.

I know a lot of people with 2 or 3 partime jobs whom are not rolling in the dough , but are comfortable.

I think there's a lot of truth to that. Yes, there are people who have decent jobs without a high school diploma, but those opportunities are getting scarcer by the year.

Waiting to have kids... Yes. I think the article means to a) have kids with the person you truly intent to spend your life with and b) to build up a solid base for a family. There's no need to get married and pop kids out right away... Enjoy and learn to live with each other and build a nest egg... Establish yourself. Take advantage of a dual income... Which obviously is No. 3.

Of course this is not a bomb proof recipe, but there's a lot of truth behind it.

I think there's a lot of truth to that. Yes, there are people who have decent jobs without a high school diploma, but those opportunities are getting scarcer by the year.

Waiting to have kids... Yes. I think the article means to a) have kids with the person you truly intent to spend your life with and b) to build up a solid base for a family. There's no need to get married and pop kids out right away... Enjoy and learn to live with each other and build a nest egg... Establish yourself. Take advantage of a dual income... Which obviously is No. 3.

Of course this is not a bomb proof recipe, but there's a lot of truth behind it.

This is exactly how I feel.

Getting married after the age of 21 means you are at least out of high school.

Two incomes can obviously go further than one, and having a two parent household makes it easier to raise a child.

Children are expensive and time consuming- which is why there doesn't need to be a rush to have them. Why make things harder on yourself than they have to be? Get out of school, get married, hold a full time job and wait until you're ready to be a parent.

[threadjack]There is no such thing as "ready to be a parent" no matter how old or settled you are. Sure, there are better times and more ideal circumstances than others to start a family, but there isn't a single person who is not a parent who is "ready to be a parent". Hell, most of us who are parents still aren't ready [/threadjack]

__________________
When things don't go your way, stop and think, "Problem, or inconvenience?" - with apologies to Robert Fulghum

One thing to note about waiting to marry is that divorce is financially devistating . . . and statistically, later marriages are less likely to end in divorce (unsurprisingly, really, when you think about it).

__________________I'm a lawyer, but I'm not YOUR lawyer. Nothing I say should be taken as legal advice.
The Court's extensive review of these pages serves as a useful reminder that loaded guns, sharp objects and law degrees should be kept out of the reach of children. -- United States Magistrate Judge Paul Cleary

[threadjack]There is no such thing as "ready to be a parent" no matter how old or settled you are. Sure, there are better times and more ideal circumstances than others to start a family, but there isn't a single person who is not a parent who is "ready to be a parent". Hell, most of us who are parents still aren't ready [/threadjack]

You know what I mean

Don't have a kid if you're single and can't afford the cost that comes with them. Don't have a kid if you can't afford to take care of yourself.

[threadjack]There is no such thing as "ready to be a parent" no matter how old or settled you are. Sure, there are better times and more ideal circumstances than others to start a family, but there isn't a single person who is not a parent who is "ready to be a parent". Hell, most of us who are parents still aren't ready [/threadjack]

I think I disagree. I know plenty of women who were "established" in their marriage and career and decided to have their kid(s) later. They fully embraced the thought of being a mom (and dad). I believe you can be ready for a child.